Validation of routing information in a network fabric

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for validating routing table information in a network. A network assurance appliance may be configured to retrieve routing table information from a plurality of nodes in a network fabric. The routing table information includes path information from at least one source node to at least one destination node. A graph representation of the routing table information is constructed with the at least one destination node as a sink vertex for the graph representation. The network assurance appliance determines, for each leaf node in the network fabric, whether the leaf node can reach the sink vertex based on the graph representation and determines that there is a misconfiguration of the network fabric based on whether each leaf node in the fabric can reach the sink vertex.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application62/521,648, filed on Jun. 19, 2017, “VALIDATION OF ROUTING INFORMATIONIN A NETWORK FABRIC,” the contents of which are herein incorporated byreference in its entirety.

The present technology pertains to network configuration andtroubleshooting, and more specifically to validating routing informationfor a network.

BACKGROUND

Network configurations for large data center networks are oftenspecified at a centralized controller. The controller can programswitches, routers, servers, and elements in the network according to thespecified network configurations. Network configurations are inherentlyvery complex, and involve low level as well as high level configurationsof several layers of the network such as access policies, forwardingpolicies, routing policies, security policies, QoS policies, etc. Givensuch complexity, the network configuration process is error prone. Inmany cases, the configurations defined on a controller, which canreflect an intent specification for the network, can contain errors andinconsistencies that are often extremely difficult to identify and maycreate significant problems in the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the principles briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are nottherefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principlesherein are described and explained with additional specificity anddetail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate example network environments, in accordancewith various aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 2A illustrates an example object model for a network, in accordancewith various aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 2B illustrates an example object model for a tenant object in theexample object model from FIG. 2A, in accordance with various aspects ofthe subject technology;

FIG. 2C illustrates an example association of various objects in theexample object model from FIG. 2A, in accordance with various aspects ofthe subject technology;

FIG. 2D illustrates a schematic diagram of example models forimplementing the example object model from FIG. 2A, in accordance withvarious aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 3A illustrates an example network assurance appliance, inaccordance with various aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 3B illustrates an example system for network assurance, inaccordance with various aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of an example system for staticpolicy analysis in a network, in accordance with various aspects of thesubject technology;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method embodiment for network assurance,in accordance with various aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for performing an infrastructure routingvalidation, in accordance with various aspects of the subjecttechnology;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart for performing Multiprotocol BorderGateway Protocol (MP-BGP) routing validation, in accordance with variousaspects of the subject technology;

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate example user interfaces, in accordance withvarious aspects of the subject technology;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example network device in accordance with variousembodiments; and

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computing device in accordance withvarious embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.Thus, the following description and drawings are illustrative and arenot to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are describedto provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, incertain instances, well-known or conventional details are not describedin order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or anembodiment in the present disclosure can be references to the sameembodiment or any embodiment; and, such references mean at least one ofthe embodiments.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment,nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of otherembodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may beexhibited by some embodiments and not by others.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinarymeanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in thespecific context where each term is used. Alternative language andsynonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein,and no special significance should be placed upon whether or not a termis elaborated or discussed herein. In some cases, synonyms for certainterms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not excludethe use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in thisspecification including examples of any terms discussed herein isillustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope andmeaning of the disclosure or of any example term. Likewise, thedisclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in thisspecification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples ofinstruments, apparatus, methods, and their related results according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note thattitles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of areader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise defined, technical, and scientific terms used herein have themeaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art towhich this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the presentdocument, including definitions will control.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forthin the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosedprinciples. The features and advantages of the disclosure can berealized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinationsparticularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and otherfeatures of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from thefollowing description and appended claims, or can be learned by thepractice of the principles set forth herein.

OVERVIEW

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable media forvalidating routing table information in a network. A network assuranceappliance may be configured to retrieve routing table information from aplurality of nodes in a network fabric. The routing table informationincludes path information from at least one source node to at least onedestination node. A graph representation of the routing tableinformation is constructed with the at least one destination node as asink vertex for the graph representation. The network assuranceappliance determines, for each leaf node in the network fabric, whetherthe leaf node can reach the sink vertex based on the graphrepresentation and determines that there is a misconfiguration of thenetwork fabric based on whether each leaf node in the fabric can reachthe sink vertex.

According to some aspects of the subject technology, a network assuranceappliance may be configured to retrieve routing table information fromnodes in a network fabric, wherein the routing table informationincludes path information from at least one source node to a destinationnode. The network assurance appliance determines, for each source nodein the at least one source node, whether the source node can reach thedestination node based on the routing table information, determines thatthere is a misconfiguration of the network fabric based on whether eachleaf node in the at least one source node can reach the destinationnode, and generates an event specifying the misconfiguration.

DESCRIPTION

The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for validatingrouting information in a network. The present technology involvessystem, methods, and computer-readable media for validating routinginformation in a network. The present technology will be described inthe following disclosure as follows. The discussion begins with anintroductory discussion of network assurance and a description ofexample computing environments, as illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B. Adiscussion of network models for network assurance, as shown in FIGS. 2Athrough 2D, and network assurance systems and methods, as shown in FIGS.3-7, will then follow. The discussion concludes with a description of anexample network device, as illustrated in FIG. 8, and an examplecomputing device, as illustrated in FIG. 9, including example hardwarecomponents suitable for hosting software applications and performingcomputing operations. The disclosure now turns to an introductorydiscussion of network assurance.

Network assurance is the guarantee or determination that the network isbehaving as intended by the network operator and has been configuredproperly (e.g., the network is doing what it is intended to do). Intentcan encompass various network operations, such as bridging, routing,security, service chaining, endpoints, compliance, QoS (Quality ofService), audits, etc. Intent can be embodied in one or more policies,settings, configurations, etc., defined for the network and individualnetwork elements (e.g., switches, routers, applications, resources,etc.). However, often times, the configurations, policies, etc., definedby a network operator are incorrect or not accurately reflected in theactual behavior of the network. For example, a network operatorspecifies a configuration A for one or more types of traffic but laterfinds out that the network is actually applying configuration B to thattraffic or otherwise processing that traffic in a manner that isinconsistent with configuration A. This can be a result of manydifferent causes, such as hardware errors, software bugs, varyingpriorities, configuration conflicts, misconfiguration of one or moresettings, improper rule rendering by devices, unexpected errors orevents, software upgrades, configuration changes, failures, etc. Asanother example, a network operator implements configuration C but oneor more other configurations result in the network behaving in a mannerthat is inconsistent with the intent reflected by the implementation ofconfiguration C. For example, such a situation can result whenconfiguration C conflicts with other configurations in the network.

The approaches herein can provide network assurance by modeling variousaspects of the network and/or performing consistency checks as well asother network assurance checks. The network assurance approaches hereincan be implemented in various types of networks, including a privatenetwork, such as a local area network (LAN); an enterprise network; astandalone or traditional network, such as a data center network; anetwork including a physical or underlay layer and a logical or overlaylayer, such as a virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) or software-definednetwork (SDN) (e.g., Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) or VMwareNSX networks); etc.

Network models can be constructed for a network and implemented fornetwork assurance. A network model can provide a representation of oneor more aspects of a network, including, without limitation thenetwork's policies, configurations, requirements, security, routing,topology, applications, hardware, filters, contracts, access controllists, infrastructure, etc. As will be further explained below,different types of models can be generated for a network.

Such models can be implemented to ensure that the behavior of thenetwork will be consistent (or is consistent) with the intended behaviorreflected through specific configurations (e.g., policies, settings,definitions, etc.) implemented by the network operator. Unliketraditional network monitoring, which involves sending and analyzingdata packets and observing network behavior, network assurance can beperformed through modeling without necessarily ingesting packet data ormonitoring traffic or network behavior. This can result in foresight,insight, and hindsight: problems can be prevented before they occur,identified when they occur, and fixed immediately after they occur.

Thus, network assurance can involve modeling properties of the networkto deterministically predict the behavior of the network. The networkcan be determined to be healthy if the model(s) indicate proper behavior(e.g., no inconsistencies, conflicts, errors, etc.). The network can bedetermined to be functional, but not fully healthy, if the modelingindicates proper behavior but some inconsistencies. The network can bedetermined to be non-functional and not healthy if the modelingindicates improper behavior and errors. If inconsistencies or errors aredetected by the modeling, a detailed analysis of the correspondingmodel(s) can allow one or more underlying or root problems to beidentified with great accuracy.

The modeling can consume numerous types of smart events which model alarge amount of behavioral aspects of the network. Smart events canimpact various aspects of the network, such as underlay services,overlay services, tenant connectivity, tenant security, tenant end point(EP) mobility, tenant policy, tenant routing, resources, etc.

Having described various aspects of network assurance, the disclosurenow turns to a discussion of example network environments for networkassurance.

FIG. 1A illustrates example network environments, in accordance withvarious aspects of the subject technology. In particular, FIG. 1Aillustrates a diagram of an example Network Environment 100, such as adata center. The Network Environment 100 can include a Fabric 120 whichcan represent the physical layer or infrastructure (e.g., underlay) ofthe Network Environment 100. Fabric 120 can include Spines 102 (e.g.,spine routers or switches) and Leafs 104 (e.g., leaf routers orswitches) which can be interconnected for routing or switching trafficin the Fabric 120. Spines 102 can interconnect Leafs 104 in the Fabric120, and Leafs 104 can connect the Fabric 120 to an overlay or logicalportion of the Network Environment 100, which can include applicationservices, servers, virtual machines, containers, endpoints, etc. Thus,network connectivity in the Fabric 120 can flow from Spines 102 to Leafs104, and vice versa. The interconnections between Leafs 104 and Spines102 can be redundant (e.g., multiple interconnections) to avoid afailure in routing. In some embodiments, Leafs 104 and Spines 102 can befully connected, such that any given Leaf is connected to each of theSpines 102, and any given Spine is connected to each of the Leafs 104.Leafs 104 can be, for example, top-of-rack (“ToR”) switches, aggregationswitches, gateways, ingress and/or egress switches, provider edgedevices, and/or any other type of routing or switching device.

Leafs 104 can be responsible for routing and/or bridging tenant orcustomer packets and applying network policies or rules. Networkpolicies and rules can be driven by one or more Controllers 116, and/orimplemented or enforced by one or more devices, such as Leafs 104. Leafs104 can connect other elements to the Fabric 120. For example, Leafs 104can connect Servers 106, Hypervisors 108, Virtual Machines (VMs) 110,Applications 112, Network Device 114, etc., with Fabric 120. Suchelements can reside in one or more logical or virtual layers ornetworks, such as an overlay network. In some cases, Leafs 104 canencapsulate and decapsulate packets to and from such elements (e.g.,Servers 106) in order to enable communications throughout NetworkEnvironment 100 and Fabric 120. Leafs 104 can also provide any otherdevices, services, tenants, or workloads with access to Fabric 120. Insome cases, Servers 106 connected to Leafs 104 can similarly encapsulateand decapsulate packets to and from Leafs 104. For example, Servers 106can include one or more virtual switches or routers or tunnel endpointsfor tunneling packets between an overlay or logical layer hosted by, orconnected to, Servers 106 and an underlay layer represented by Fabric120 and accessed via Leafs 104.

Applications 112 can include software applications, services,containers, appliances, functions, service chains, etc. For example,Applications 112 can include a firewall, a database, a content deliverynetwork (CDN) server, an intrusion defense system (IDS) or intrusionprevention system (IPS), a deep packet inspection service, a messagerouter, a virtual switch, etc. An application from Applications 112 canbe distributed, chained, or hosted by multiple endpoints (e.g., Servers106, VMs 110, etc.), or may run or execute entirely from a singleendpoint.

VMs 110 can be virtual machines hosted by Hypervisors 108 or virtualmachine managers running on Servers 106. VMs 110 can include workloadsrunning on a guest operating system on a respective server. Hypervisors108 can provide a layer of software, firmware, and/or hardware thatcreates, manages, and/or runs the VMs 110. Hypervisors 108 can allow VMs110 to share hardware resources on Servers 106, and the hardwareresources on Servers 106 to appear as multiple, separate hardwareplatforms. Moreover, Hypervisors 108 on Servers 106 can host one or moreVMs 110.

In some cases, VMs 110 and/or Hypervisors 108 can be migrated to otherServers 106. Servers 106 can similarly be migrated to other locations inNetwork Environment 100. For example, a server connected to a specificleaf can be changed to connect to a different or additional leaf. Suchconfiguration or deployment changes can involve modifications tosettings, configurations, and policies that are applied to the resourcesbeing migrated as well as other network components.

In some cases, one or more Servers 106, Hypervisors 108, and/or VMs 110can represent or reside in a tenant or customer space. Tenant space caninclude workloads, services, applications, devices, networks, and/orresources that are associated with one or more clients or subscribers.Accordingly, traffic in Network Environment 100 can be routed based onspecific tenant policies, spaces, agreements, configurations, etc.Moreover, addressing can vary between one or more tenants. In someconfigurations, tenant spaces can be divided into logical segmentsand/or networks and separated from logical segments and/or networksassociated with other tenants. Addressing, policy, security, andconfiguration information between tenants can be managed by Controllers116, Servers 106, Leafs 104, etc.

Configurations in Network Environment 100 can be implemented at alogical level, a hardware level (e.g., physical), and/or both. Forexample, configurations can be implemented at a logical and/or hardwarelevel based on endpoint or resource attributes, such as endpoint typesand/or application groups or profiles, through a software-definednetwork (SDN) framework (e.g., Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI)or VMWARE NSX). To illustrate, one or more administrators can defineconfigurations at a logical level (e.g., application or software level)through Controllers 116, which can implement or propagate suchconfigurations through Network Environment 100. In some examples,Controllers 116 can be Application Policy Infrastructure Controllers(APICs) in an ACI framework. In other examples, Controllers 116 can beone or more management components for associated with other SDNsolutions, such as NSX Managers.

Such configurations can define rules, policies, priorities, protocols,attributes, objects, etc., for routing and/or classifying traffic inNetwork Environment 100. For example, such configurations can defineattributes and objects for classifying and processing traffic based onEndpoint Groups (EPGs), Security Groups (SGs), VM types, bridge domains(BDs), virtual routing and forwarding instances (VRFs), tenants,priorities, firewall rules, etc. Other example network objects andconfigurations are further described below. Traffic policies and rulescan be enforced based on tags, attributes, or other characteristics ofthe traffic, such as protocols associated with the traffic, EPGsassociated with the traffic, SGs associated with the traffic, networkaddress information associated with the traffic, etc. Such policies andrules can be enforced by one or more elements in Network Environment100, such as Leafs 104, Servers 106, Hypervisors 108, Controllers 116,etc. As previously explained, Network Environment 100 can be configuredaccording to one or more particular software-defined network (SDN)solutions, such as CISCO ACI or VMWARE NSX. These example SDN solutionsare briefly described below.

ACI can provide an application-centric or policy-based solution throughscalable distributed enforcement. ACI supports integration of physicaland virtual environments under a declarative configuration model fornetworks, servers, services, security, requirements, etc. For example,the ACI framework implements EPGs, which can include a collection ofendpoints or applications that share common configuration requirements,such as security, QoS, services, etc. Endpoints can be virtual/logicalor physical devices, such as VMs, containers, hosts, or physical serversthat are connected to Network Environment 100. Endpoints can have one ormore attributes such as a VM name, guest OS name, a security tag,application profile, etc. Application configurations can be appliedbetween EPGs, instead of endpoints directly, in the form of contracts.Leafs 104 can classify incoming traffic into different EPGs. Theclassification can be based on, for example, a network segmentidentifier such as a VLAN ID, VXLAN Network Identifier (VNID), NetworkVirtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) VirtualSubnet Identifier (VSID), MAC address, IP address, etc.

In some cases, classification in the ACI infrastructure can beimplemented by Application Virtual Switches (AVS), which can run on ahost, such as a server or switch. For example, an AVS can classifytraffic based on specified attributes, and tag packets of differentattribute EPGs with different identifiers, such as network segmentidentifiers (e.g., VLAN ID). Finally, Leafs 104 can tie packets withtheir attribute EPGs based on their identifiers and enforce policies,which can be implemented and/or managed by one or more Controllers 116.Leaf 104 can classify to which EPG the traffic from a host belongs andenforce policies accordingly.

Another example SDN solution is based on VMWARE NSX. With VMWARE NSX,hosts can run a distributed firewall (DFW) which can classify andprocess traffic. Consider a case where three types of VMs, namely,application, database, and web VMs, are put into a single layer-2network segment. Traffic protection can be provided within the networksegment based on the VM type. For example, HTTP traffic can be allowedamong web VMs, and disallowed between a web VM and an application ordatabase VM. To classify traffic and implement policies, VMWARE NSX canimplement security groups, which can be used to group the specific VMs(e.g., web VMs, application VMs, and database VMs). DFW rules can beconfigured to implement policies for the specific security groups. Toillustrate, in the context of the previous example, DFW rules can beconfigured to block HTTP traffic between web, application, and databasesecurity groups.

Returning now to FIG. 1A, Network Environment 100 can deploy differenthosts via Leafs 104, Servers 106, Hypervisors 108, VMs 110, Applications112, and Controllers 116, such as VMWARE ESXi hosts, WINDOWS HYPER-Vhosts, bare metal physical hosts, etc. Network Environment 100 mayinteroperate with a variety of Hypervisors 108, Servers 106 (e.g.,physical and/or virtual servers), SDN orchestration platforms, etc.Network Environment 100 may implement a declarative model to allow itsintegration with application design and holistic network policy.

Controllers 116 can provide centralized access to fabric information,application configuration, resource configuration, application-levelconfiguration modeling for a software-defined network (SDN)infrastructure, integration with management systems or servers, etc.Controllers 116 can form a control plane that interfaces with anapplication plane via northbound APIs and a data plane via southboundAPIs.

As previously noted, Controllers 116 can define and manageapplication-level model(s) for configurations in Network Environment100. In some cases, application or device configurations can also bemanaged and/or defined by other components in the network. For example,a hypervisor or virtual appliance, such as a VM or container, can run aserver or management tool to manage software and services in NetworkEnvironment 100, including configurations and settings for virtualappliances.

As illustrated above, Network Environment 100 can include one or moredifferent types of SDN solutions, hosts, etc. For the sake of clarityand explanation purposes, various examples in the disclosure will bedescribed with reference to an ACI framework, and Controllers 116 may beinterchangeably referenced as controllers, APICs, or APIC controllers.However, it should be noted that the technologies and concepts hereinare not limited to ACI solutions and may be implemented in otherarchitectures and scenarios, including other SDN solutions as well asother types of networks which may not deploy an SDN solution.

Further, as referenced herein, the term “hosts” can refer to Servers 106(e.g., physical or logical), Hypervisors 108, VMs 110, containers (e.g.,Applications 112), etc., and can run or include any type of server orapplication solution. Non-limiting examples of “hosts” can includevirtual switches or routers, such as distributed virtual switches (DVS),application virtual switches (AVS), vector packet processing (VPP)switches; VCENTER and NSX MANAGERS; bare metal physical hosts; HYPER-Vhosts; VMs; DOCKER Containers; etc.

FIG. 1B illustrates example network environments, in accordance withvarious aspects of the subject technology. In particular, FIG. 1Billustrates another example of Network Environment 100. In this example,Network Environment 100 includes Endpoints 122 connected to Leafs 104 inFabric 120. Endpoints 122 can be physical and/or logical or virtualentities, such as servers, clients, VMs, hypervisors, softwarecontainers, applications, resources, network devices, workloads, etc.For example, an Endpoint 122 can be an object that represents a physicaldevice (e.g., server, client, switch, etc.), an application (e.g., webapplication, database application, etc.), a logical or virtual resource(e.g., a virtual switch, a virtual service appliance, a virtualizednetwork function (VNF), a VM, a service chain, etc.), a containerrunning a software resource (e.g., an application, an appliance, a VNF,a service chain, etc.), storage, a workload or workload engine, etc.Endpoints 122 can have an address (e.g., an identity), a location (e.g.,host, network segment, virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance,domain, etc.), one or more attributes (e.g., name, type, version, patchlevel, OS name, OS type, etc.), a tag (e.g., security tag), a profile,etc.

Endpoints 122 can be associated with respective Logical Groups 118.Logical Groups 118 can be logical entities containing endpoints(physical and/or logical or virtual) grouped together according to oneor more attributes, such as endpoint type (e.g., VM type, workload type,application type, etc.), one or more requirements (e.g., policyrequirements, security requirements, QoS requirements, customerrequirements, resource requirements, etc.), a resource name (e.g., VMname, application name, etc.), a profile, platform or operating system(OS) characteristics (e.g., OS type or name including guest and/or hostOS, etc.), an associated network or tenant, one or more policies, a tag,etc. For example, a logical group can be an object representing acollection of endpoints grouped together. To illustrate, Logical Group 1can contain client endpoints, Logical Group 2 can contain web serverendpoints, Logical Group 3 can contain application server endpoints,Logical Group N can contain database server endpoints, etc. In someexamples, Logical Groups 118 are EPGs in an ACI environment and/or otherlogical groups (e.g., SGs) in another SDN environment.

Traffic to and/or from Endpoints 122 can be classified, processed,managed, etc., based Logical Groups 118. For example, Logical Groups 118can be used to classify traffic to or from Endpoints 122, apply policiesto traffic to or from Endpoints 122, define relationships betweenEndpoints 122, define roles of Endpoints 122 (e.g., whether an endpointconsumes or provides a service, etc.), apply rules to traffic to or fromEndpoints 122, apply filters or access control lists (ACLs) to trafficto or from Endpoints 122, define communication paths for traffic to orfrom Endpoints 122, enforce requirements associated with Endpoints 122,implement security and other configurations associated with Endpoints122, etc.

In an ACI environment, Logical Groups 118 can be EPGs used to definecontracts in the ACI. Contracts can include rules specifying what andhow communications between EPGs take place. For example, a contract candefine what provides a service, what consumes a service, and what policyobjects are related to that consumption relationship. A contract caninclude a policy that defines the communication path and all relatedelements of a communication or relationship between endpoints or EPGs.For example, a Web EPG can provide a service that a Client EPG consumes,and that consumption can be subject to a filter (ACL) and a servicegraph that includes one or more services, such as firewall inspectionservices and server load balancing.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example object model for a network, in accordancewith various aspects of the subject technology. In particular, FIG. 2Aillustrates a diagram of an example Management Information Model 200 foran SDN network, such as Network Environment 100. The followingdiscussion of Management Information Model 200 references various termswhich shall also be used throughout the disclosure. Accordingly, forclarity, the disclosure shall first provide below a list of terminology,which will be followed by a more detailed discussion of ManagementInformation Model 200.

As used herein, an “Alias” can refer to a changeable name for a givenobject. Thus, even if the name of an object, once created, cannot bechanged, the Alias can be a field that can be changed.

As used herein, the term “Aliasing” can refer to a rule (e.g.,contracts, policies, configurations, etc.) that overlaps one or moreother rules. For example, Contract 1 defined in a logical model of anetwork can be said to be aliasing Contract 2 defined in the logicalmodel of the network if Contract 1 overlaps Contract 1. In this example,by aliasing Contract 2, Contract 1 may render Contract 2 redundant orinoperable. For example, if Contract 1 has a higher priority thanContract 2, such aliasing can render Contract 2 redundant based onContract 1's overlapping and higher priority characteristics.

As used herein, the term “APIC” can refer to one or more controllers(e.g., Controllers 116) in an ACI framework. The APIC can provide aunified point of automation and management, policy programming,application deployment, health monitoring for an ACI multitenant fabric.The APIC can be implemented as a single controller, a distributedcontroller, or a replicated, synchronized, and/or clustered controller.

As used herein, the term “BDD” can refer to a binary decision tree. Abinary decision tree can be a data structure representing functions,such as Boolean functions.

As used herein, the term “BD” can refer to a bridge domain. A bridgedomain can be a set of logical ports that share the same flooding orbroadcast characteristics. Like a virtual LAN (VLAN), bridge domains canspan multiple devices. A bridge domain can be a L2 (Layer 2) construct.

As used herein, a “Consumer” can refer to an endpoint, resource, and/orEPG that consumes a service.

As used herein, a “Context” can refer to an L3 (Layer 3) address domainthat allows multiple instances of a routing table to exist and worksimultaneously. This increases functionality by allowing network pathsto be segmented without using multiple devices. Non-limiting examples ofa context or L3 address domain can include a Virtual Routing andForwarding (VRF) instance, a private network, and so forth.

As used herein, the term “Contract” can refer to rules or configurationsthat specify what and how communications in a network are conducted(e.g., allowed, denied, filtered, processed, etc.). In an ACI network,contracts can specify how communications between endpoints and/or EPGstake place. In some examples, a contract can provide rules andconfigurations akin to an Access Control List (ACL).

As used herein, the term “Distinguished Name” (DN) can refer to a uniquename that describes an object, such as an MO, and locates its place inManagement Information Model 200. In some cases, the DN can be (orequate to) a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

As used herein, the term “Endpoint Group” (EPG) can refer to a logicalentity or object associated with a collection or group of endpoints aspreviously described with reference to FIG. 1B.

As used herein, the term “Filter” can refer to a parameter orconfiguration for allowing communications. For example, in a whitelistmodel where all communications are blocked by default, a communicationmust be given explicit permission to prevent such communication frombeing blocked. A filter can define permission(s) for one or morecommunications or packets. A filter can thus function similar to an ACLor Firewall rule. In some examples, a filter can be implemented in apacket (e.g., TCP/IP) header field, such as L3 protocol type, L4 (Layer4) ports, and so on, which is used to allow inbound or outboundcommunications between endpoints or EPGs, for example.

As used herein, the term “L2 Out” can refer to a bridged connection. Abridged connection can connect two or more segments of the same networkso that they can communicate. In an ACI framework, an L2 out can be abridged (Layer 2) connection between an ACI fabric (e.g., Fabric 120)and an outside Layer 2 network, such as a switch.

As used herein, the term “L3 Out” can refer to a routed connection. Arouted Layer 3 connection uses a set of protocols that determine thepath that data follows in order to travel across networks from itssource to its destination. Routed connections can perform forwarding(e.g., IP forwarding) according to a protocol selected, such as BGP(border gateway protocol), OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), EIGRP(Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol), etc.

As used herein, the term “Managed Object” (MO) can refer to an abstractrepresentation of objects that are managed in a network (e.g., NetworkEnvironment 100). The objects can be concrete objects (e.g., a switch,server, adapter, etc.), or logical objects (e.g., an applicationprofile, an EPG, a fault, etc.). The MOs can be network resources orelements that are managed in the network. For example, in an ACIenvironment, an MO can include an abstraction of an ACI fabric (e.g.,Fabric 120) resource.

As used herein, the term “Management Information Tree” (MIT) can referto a hierarchical management information tree containing the MOs of asystem. For example, in ACI, the MIT contains the MOs of the ACI fabric(e.g., Fabric 120). The MIT can also be referred to as a ManagementInformation Model (MIM), such as Management Information Model 200.

As used herein, the term “Policy” can refer to one or morespecifications for controlling some aspect of system or networkbehavior. For example, a policy can include a named entity that containsspecifications for controlling some aspect of system behavior. Toillustrate, a Layer 3 Outside Network Policy can contain the BGPprotocol to enable BGP routing functions when connecting Fabric 120 toan outside Layer 3 network.

As used herein, the term “Profile” can refer to the configurationdetails associated with a policy. For example, a profile can include anamed entity that contains the configuration details for implementingone or more instances of a policy. To illustrate, a switch node profilefor a routing policy can contain the switch-specific configurationdetails to implement the BGP routing protocol.

As used herein, the term “Provider” refers to an object or entityproviding a service. For example, a provider can be an EPG that providesa service.

As used herein, the term “Subject” refers to one or more parameters in acontract for defining communications. For example, in ACI, subjects in acontract can specify what information can be communicated and how.Subjects can function similar to ACLs.

As used herein, the term “Tenant” refers to a unit of isolation in anetwork. For example, a tenant can be a secure and exclusive virtualcomputing environment. In ACI, a tenant can be a unit of isolation froma policy perspective, but does not necessarily represent a privatenetwork. Indeed, ACI tenants can contain multiple private networks(e.g., VRFs). Tenants can represent a customer in a service providersetting, an organization or domain in an enterprise setting, or just agrouping of policies.

As used herein, the term “VRF” refers to a virtual routing andforwarding instance. The VRF can define a Layer 3 address domain thatallows multiple instances of a routing table to exist and worksimultaneously. This increases functionality by allowing network pathsto be segmented without using multiple devices. Also known as a contextor private network.

Having described various terms used herein, the disclosure now returnsto a discussion of Management Information Model (MIM) 200 in FIG. 2A. Aspreviously noted, MIM 200 can be a hierarchical management informationtree or MIT. Moreover, MIM 200 can be managed and processed byControllers 116, such as APICs in an ACI. Controllers 116 can enable thecontrol of managed resources by presenting their manageablecharacteristics as object properties that can be inherited according tothe location of the object within the hierarchical structure of themodel.

The hierarchical structure of MIM 200 starts with Policy Universe 202 atthe top (Root) and contains parent and child nodes 116, 204, 206, 208,210, 212. Nodes 116, 202, 204, 206, 208, 210, 212 in the tree representthe managed objects (MOs) or groups of objects. Each object in thefabric (e.g., Fabric 120) has a unique distinguished name (DN) thatdescribes the object and locates its place in the tree. The Nodes 116,202, 204, 206, 208, 210, 212 can include the various MOs, as describedbelow, which contain policies that govern the operation of the system.

Controllers 116

Controllers 116 (e.g., APIC controllers) can provide management, policyprogramming, application deployment, and health monitoring for Fabric120.

Node 204

Node 204 includes a tenant container for policies that enable anadministrator to exercise domain-based access control. Non-limitingexamples of tenants can include:

User tenants defined by the administrator according to the needs ofusers. They contain policies that govern the operation of resources suchas applications, databases, web servers, network-attached storage,virtual machines, and so on.

The common tenant is provided by the system but can be configured by theadministrator. It contains policies that govern the operation ofresources accessible to all tenants, such as firewalls, load balancers,Layer 4 to Layer 7 services, intrusion detection appliances, and so on.

The infrastructure tenant is provided by the system but can beconfigured by the administrator. It contains policies that govern theoperation of infrastructure resources such as the fabric overlay (e.g.,VXLAN). It also enables a fabric provider to selectively deployresources to one or more user tenants. Infrastructure tenant polices canbe configurable by the administrator.

The management tenant is provided by the system but can be configured bythe administrator. It contains policies that govern the operation offabric management functions used for in-band and out-of-bandconfiguration of fabric nodes. The management tenant contains a privateout-of-bound address space for the Controller/Fabric internalcommunications that is outside the fabric data path that provides accessthrough the management port of the switches. The management tenantenables discovery and automation of communications with virtual machinecontrollers.

Node 206

Node 206 can contain access policies that govern the operation of switchaccess ports that provide connectivity to resources such as storage,compute, Layer 2 and Layer 3 (bridged and routed) connectivity, virtualmachine hypervisors, Layer 4 to Layer 7 devices, and so on. If a tenantrequires interface configurations other than those provided in thedefault link, Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), Link Layer DiscoveryProtocol (LLDP), Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), or SpanningTree Protocol (STP), an administrator can configure access policies toenable such configurations on the access ports of Leafs 104.

Node 206 can contain fabric policies that govern the operation of theswitch fabric ports, including such functions as Network Time Protocol(NTP) server synchronization, Intermediate System-to-Intermediate SystemProtocol (IS-IS), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route reflectors, DomainName System (DNS) and so on. The fabric MO contains objects such aspower supplies, fans, chassis, and so on.

Node 208

Node 208 can contain VM domains that group VM controllers with similarnetworking policy requirements. VM controllers can share virtual space(e.g., VLAN or VXLAN space) and application EPGs. Controllers 116communicate with the VM controller to publish network configurationssuch as port groups that are then applied to the virtual workloads.

Node 210

Node 210 can contain Layer 4 to Layer 7 service integration life cycleautomation framework that enables the system to dynamically respond whena service comes online or goes offline. Policies can provide servicedevice package and inventory management functions.

Node 212

Node 212 can contain access, authentication, and accounting (AAA)policies that govern user privileges, roles, and security domains ofFabric 120.

The hierarchical policy model can fit well with an API, such as a RESTAPI interface. When invoked, the API can read from or write to objectsin the MIT. URLs can map directly into distinguished names that identifyobjects in the MIT. Data in the MIT can be described as a self-containedstructured tree text document encoded in XML or JSON, for example.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example object model for a tenant object, inaccordance with various aspects of the subject technology. FIG. 2Bincludes an example object model 220 for a tenant portion of MIM 200. Aspreviously noted, a tenant is a logical container for applicationpolicies that enable an administrator to exercise domain-based accesscontrol. A tenant thus represents a unit of isolation from a policyperspective, but it does not necessarily represent a private network.Tenants can represent a customer in a service provider setting, anorganization, or domain in an enterprise setting, or just a convenientgrouping of policies. Moreover, tenants can be isolated from one anotheror can share resources.

Tenant portion 204A of MIM 200 can include various entities, and theentities in Tenant Portion 204A can inherit policies from parententities. Non-limiting examples of entities in Tenant Portion 204A caninclude Filters 240, Contracts 236, Outside Networks 222, Bridge Domains230, VRF Instances 234, and Application Profiles 224.

Bridge Domains 230 can include Subnets 232. Contracts 236 can includeSubjects 238. Application Profiles 224 can contain one or more EPGs 226.Some applications can contain multiple components. For example, ane-commerce application could require a web server, a database server,data located in a storage area network, and access to outside resourcesthat enable financial transactions. Application Profile 224 contains asmany (or as few) EPGs as necessary that are logically related toproviding the capabilities of an application.

EPG 226 can be organized in various ways, such as based on theapplication they provide, the function they provide (such asinfrastructure), where they are in the structure of the data center(such as DMZ), or whatever organizing principle that a fabric or tenantadministrator chooses to use.

EPGs in the fabric can contain various types of EPGs, such asapplication EPGs, Layer 2 external outside network instance EPGs, Layer3 external outside network instance EPGs, management EPGs forout-of-band or in-band access, etc. EPGs 226 can also contain Attributes228, such as encapsulation-based EPGs, IP-based EPGs, or MAC-based EPGs.

As previously mentioned, EPGs can contain endpoints (e.g., EPs 122) thathave common characteristics or attributes, such as common policyrequirements (e.g., security, virtual machine mobility (VMM), QoS, orLayer 4 to Layer 7 services). Rather than configure and manage endpointsindividually, they can be placed in an EPG and managed as a group.

Policies apply to EPGs, including the endpoints they contain. An EPG canbe statically configured by an administrator in Controllers 116, ordynamically configured by an automated system such as VCENTER orOPENSTACK.

To activate tenant policies in Tenant Portion 204A, fabric accesspolicies should be configured and associated with tenant policies.Access policies enable an administrator to configure other networkconfigurations, such as port channels and virtual port channels,protocols such as LLDP, CDP, or LACP, and features such as monitoring ordiagnostics.

FIG. 2C illustrates an example association of various objects, inaccordance with various aspects of the subject technology. Inparticular, FIG. 2C includes an example Association 260 of tenantentities and access entities in MIM 200. Policy Universe 202 containsTenant Portion 204A and Access Portion 206A. Thus, Tenant Portion 204Aand Access Portion 206A are associated through Policy Universe 202.

Access Portion 206A can contain fabric and infrastructure accesspolicies. Typically, in a policy model, EPGs are coupled with VLANs. Fortraffic to flow, an EPG is deployed on a leaf port with a VLAN in aphysical, VMM, L2 out, L3 out, or Fiber Channel domain, for example.

Access Portion 206A thus contains Domain Profile 236 which can define aphysical, VMM, L2 out, L3 out, or Fiber Channel domain, for example, tobe associated to the EPGs. Domain Profile 236 contains VLAN InstanceProfile 238 (e.g., VLAN pool) and Attacheable Access Entity Profile(AEP) 240, which are associated directly with application EPGs. The AEP240 deploys the associated application EPGs to the ports to which it isattached, and automates the task of assigning VLANs. While a large datacenter can have thousands of active VMs provisioned on hundreds ofVLANs, Fabric 120 can automatically assign VLAN IDs from VLAN pools.This saves time compared with trunking down VLANs in a traditional datacenter.

FIG. 2D illustrates a schematic diagram of example models forimplementing MIM 200. The network assurance models can include L_Model270A (Logical Model), LR_Model 270B (Logical Rendered Model or LogicalRuntime Model), Li_Model 272 (Logical Model for i), Ci_Model 274(Concrete model for i), and Hi_Model 276 (Hardware model or TCAM Modelfor i).

L_Model 270A is the logical representation of the objects and theirrelationships in MIM 200. L_Model 270A can be generated by Controllers116 based on configurations entered in Controllers 116 for the network,and thus represents the configurations of the network at Controllers116. This is the declaration of the “end-state” expression that isdesired when the elements of the network entities (e.g., applications)are connected and Fabric 120 is provisioned by Controllers 116. In otherwords, because L_Model 270A represents the configurations entered inControllers 116, including the objects and relationships in MIM 200, itcan also reflect the “intent” of the administrator: how theadministrator wants the network and network elements to behave.

LR_Model 270B is the abstract model expression that Controllers 116(e.g., APICs in ACI) resolve from L_Model 270A. LR_Model 270B can thusprovide the elemental configuration components that would be deliveredto the physical infrastructure (e.g., Fabric 120) to execute one or morepolicies. For example, LR_Model 270B can be delivered to Leafs 104 inFabric 120 to configure Leafs 104 for communication with attachedEndpoints 122.

Li_Model 272 is a switch-level or switch-specific model obtained fromLogical Model 270A and/or Resolved Model 270B. For example, Li_Model 272can represent the portion of L_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270Bpertaining to a specific switch or router i. To illustrate, Li_Model 272L₁ can represent the portion of L_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270Bpertaining to Leaf 1 (104). Thus, Li_Model 272 can be generated fromL_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270B for one or more switch or routers(e.g., Leafs 104 and/or Spines 102) on Fabric 120.

Ci_Model 274 is the actual in-state configuration at the individualfabric member i (e.g., switch i). In other words, Ci_Model 274 is aswitch-level or switch-specific model that is based on Li_Model 272. Forexample, Controllers 116 can deliver Li_Model 272 to Leaf 1 (104). Leaf1 (104) can take Li_Model 272, which can be specific to Leaf 1 (104),and render the policies in Li_Model 272 into a concrete model, Ci_Model274, that runs on Leaf 1 (104). Leaf 1 (104) can render Li_Model 272 viathe OS on Leaf 1 (104), for example. Thus, Ci_Model 274 can be analogousto compiled software, as it is the form of Li_Model 272 that the switchOS at Leaf 1 (104) can execute.

Hi_Model 276 is also a switch-level or switch-specific model for switchi, but is based on Ci_Model 274 for switch i. Hi_Model 276 is the actualconfiguration (e.g., rules) stored or rendered on the hardware or memory(e.g., TCAM memory) at the individual fabric member i (e.g., switch i).For example, Hi_Model 276 can represent the configurations (e.g., rules)which Leaf 1 (104) stores or renders on the hardware (e.g., TCAM memory)of Leaf 1 (104) based on Ci_Model 274 at Leaf 1 (104). The switch OS atLeaf 1 (104) can render or execute Ci_Model 274, and Leaf 1 (104) canstore or render the configurations from Ci_Model in storage, such as thememory or TCAM at Leaf 1 (104). The configurations from Hi_Model 276stored or rendered by Leaf 1 (104) represent the configurations thatwill be implemented by Leaf 1 (104) when processing traffic.

While Models 272, 274, 276 are shown as device-specific models, similarmodels can be generated or aggregated for a collection of fabric members(e.g., Leafs 104 and/or Spines 102) in Fabric 120. When combined,device-specific models, such as Model 272, Model 274, and/or Model 276,can provide a representation of Fabric 120 that extends beyond aparticular device. For example, in some cases, Li_Model 272, Ci_Model272, and/or Hi_Model 272 associated with some or all individual fabricmembers (e.g., Leafs 104 and Spines 102) can be combined or aggregatedto generate one or more aggregated models based on the individual fabricmembers.

As referenced herein, the terms H Model, T Model, and TCAM Model can beused interchangeably to refer to a hardware model, such as Hi_Model 276.For example, Ti Model, Hi_Model and TCAMi Model may be usedinterchangeably to refer to Hi_Model 276.

Models 270A, 270B, 272, 274, 276 can provide representations of variousaspects of the network or various configuration stages for MIM 200. Forexample, one or more of Models 270A, 270B, 272, 274, 276 can be used togenerate Underlay Model 278 representing one or more aspects of Fabric120 (e.g., underlay topology, routing, etc.), Overlay Model 280representing one or more aspects of the overlay or logical segment(s) ofNetwork Environment 100 (e.g., COOP, MPBGP, tenants, VRFs, VLANs,VXLANs, virtual applications, VMs, hypervisors, virtual switching,etc.), Tenant Model 282 representing one or more aspects of Tenantportion 204A in MIM 200 (e.g., security, forwarding, service chaining,QoS, VRFs, BDs, Contracts, Filters, EPGs, subnets, etc.), ResourcesModel 284 representing one or more resources in Network Environment 100(e.g., storage, computing, VMs, port channels, physical elements, etc.),etc.

In general, L_Model 270A can be the high-level expression of what existsin the LR_Model 270B, which should be present on the concrete devices asCi_Model 274 and Hi_Model 276 expression. If there is any gap betweenthe models, there may be inconsistent configurations or problems.

FIG. 3A illustrates a diagram of an example Assurance Appliance 300 fornetwork assurance. In this example, Assurance Appliance 300 can includek VMs 110 operating in cluster mode. VMs are used in this example forexplanation purposes. However, it should be understood that otherconfigurations are also contemplated herein, such as use of containers,bare metal devices, Endpoints 122, or any other physical or logicalsystems. Moreover, while FIG. 3A illustrates a cluster modeconfiguration, other configurations are also contemplated herein, suchas a single mode configuration (e.g., single VM, container, or server)or a service chain for example.

Assurance Appliance 300 can run on one or more Servers 106, VMs 110,Hypervisors 108, EPs 122, Leafs 104, Controllers 116, or any othersystem or resource. For example, Assurance Appliance 300 can be alogical service or application running on one or more VMs 110 in NetworkEnvironment 100.

The Assurance Appliance 300 can include Data Framework 308, which can bebased on, for example, APACHE APEX and HADOOP. In some cases, assurancechecks can be written as individual operators that reside in DataFramework 308. This enables a natively horizontal scale-out architecturethat can scale to arbitrary number of switches in Fabric 120 (e.g., ACIfabric).

Assurance Appliance 300 can poll Fabric 120 at a configurableperiodicity (e.g., an epoch). The analysis workflow can be setup as aDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) of Operators 310, where data flows from oneoperator to another and eventually results are generated and persistedto Database 302 for each interval (e.g., each epoch).

The north-tier implements API Server (e.g., APACHE Tomcat and Springframework) 304 and Web Server 306. A graphical user interface (GUI)interacts via the APIs exposed to the customer. These APIs can also beused by the customer to collect data from Assurance Appliance 300 forfurther integration into other tools.

Operators 310 in Data Framework 308 (e.g., APEX/Hadoop) can togethersupport assurance operations. Below are non-limiting examples ofassurance operations that can be performed by Assurance Appliance 300via Operators 310.

Security Policy Adherence

Assurance Appliance 300 can check to make sure the configurations orspecification from L_Model 270A, which may reflect the user's intent forthe network, including for example the security policies andcustomer-configured contracts, are correctly implemented and/or renderedin Li_Model 272, Ci_Model 274, and Hi_Model 276, and thus properlyimplemented and rendered by the fabric members (e.g., Leafs 104), andreport any errors, contract violations, or irregularities found.

Static Policy Analysis

Assurance Appliance 300 can check for issues in the specification of theuser's intent or intents (e.g., identify contradictory or conflictingpolicies in L_Model 270A).

TCAM Utilization

TCAM is a scarce resource in the fabric (e.g., Fabric 120). However,Assurance Appliance 300 can analyze the TCAM utilization by the networkdata (e.g., Longest Prefix Match (LPM) tables, routing tables, VLANtables, BGP updates, etc.), Contracts, Logical Groups 118 (e.g., EPGs),Tenants, Spines 102, Leafs 104, and other dimensions in NetworkEnvironment 100 and/or objects in MIM 200, to provide a network operatoror user visibility into the utilization of this scarce resource. Thiscan greatly help for planning and other optimization purposes.

Endpoint Checks

Assurance Appliance 300 can validate that the fabric (e.g., fabric 120)has no inconsistencies in the Endpoint information registered (e.g., twoleafs announcing the same endpoint, duplicate subnets, etc.), amongother such checks.

Tenant Routing Checks

Assurance Appliance 300 can validate that BDs, VRFs, subnets (bothinternal and external), VLANs, contracts, filters, applications, EPGs,etc., are correctly programmed.

Infrastructure Routing

Assurance Appliance 300 can validate that infrastructure routing (e.g.,IS-IS protocol) has no convergence issues leading to black holes, loops,flaps, and other problems.

MP-BGP Route Reflection Checks

The network fabric (e.g., Fabric 120) can interface with other externalnetworks and provide connectivity to them via one or more protocols,such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF),etc. The learned routes are advertised within the network fabric via,for example, MP-BGP. These checks can ensure that a route reflectionservice via, for example, MP-BGP (e.g., from Border Leaf) does not havehealth issues.

Logical Lint and Real-Time Change Analysis

Assurance Appliance 300 can validate rules in the specification of thenetwork (e.g., L_Model 270A) are complete and do not haveinconsistencies or other problems. MOs in the MIM 200 can be checked byAssurance Appliance 300 through syntactic and semantic checks performedon L_Model 270A and/or the associated configurations of the MOs in MIM200. Assurance Appliance 300 can also verify that unnecessary, stale,unused or redundant configurations, such as contracts, are removed.

FIG. 3B illustrates an architectural diagram of an example system 350for network assurance. In some cases, system 350 can correspond to theDAG of Operators 310 previously discussed with respect to FIG. 3A Inthis example, Topology Explorer 312 communicates with Controllers 116(e.g., APIC controllers) in order to discover or otherwise construct acomprehensive topological view of Fabric 120 (e.g., Spines 102, Leafs104, Controllers 116, Endpoints 122, and any other components as well astheir interconnections). While various architectural components arerepresented in a singular, boxed fashion, it is understood that a givenarchitectural component, such as Topology Explorer 312, can correspondto one or more individual Operators 310 and may include one or morenodes or endpoints, such as one or more servers, VMs, containers,applications, service functions (e.g., functions in a service chain orvirtualized network function), etc.

Topology Explorer 312 is configured to discover nodes in Fabric 120,such as Controllers 116, Leafs 104, Spines 102, etc. Topology Explorer312 can additionally detect a majority election performed amongstControllers 116, and determine whether a quorum exists amongstControllers 116. If no quorum or majority exists, Topology Explorer 312can trigger an event and alert a user that a configuration or othererror exists amongst Controllers 116 that is preventing a quorum ormajority from being reached. Topology Explorer 312 can detect Leafs 104and Spines 102 that are part of Fabric 120 and publish theircorresponding out-of-band management network addresses (e.g., IPaddresses) to downstream services. This can be part of the topologicalview that is published to the downstream services at the conclusion ofTopology Explorer's 312 discovery epoch (e.g., 5 minutes, or some otherspecified interval).

Unified Collector 314 can receive the topological view from TopologyExplorer 312 and use the topology information to collect information fornetwork assurance from Fabric 120. Such information can include L_Model270A and/or LR_Model 270B from Controllers 116, switch softwareconfigurations (e.g., Ci_Model 274) from Leafs 104 and/or Spines 102,hardware configurations (e.g., Hi_Model 276) from Leafs 104 and/orSpines 102, etc. Unified Collector 314 can collect Ci_Model 274 andHi_Model 276 from individual fabric members (e.g., Leafs 104 and Spines102).

Unified Collector 314 can poll the devices that Topology Explorer 312discovers in order to collect data from Fabric 120 (e.g., from theconstituent members of the fabric). Unified Collector 314 can collectthe data using interfaces exposed by Controller 116 and/or switchsoftware (e.g., switch OS), including, for example, a RepresentationState Transfer (REST) Interface and a Secure Shell (SSH) Interface.

In some cases, Unified Collector 314 collects L_Model 270A, LR_Model270B, and/or Ci_Model 274 via a REST API, and the hardware information(e.g., configurations, tables, fabric card information, rules, routes,etc.) via SSH using utilities provided by the switch software, such asvirtual shell (VSH or VSHELL) for accessing the switch command-lineinterface (CLI) or VSH_LC shell for accessing runtime state of the linecard.

Unified Collector 314 can poll other information from Controllers 116,including: topology information, tenant forwarding/routing information,tenant security policies, contracts, interface policies, physical domainor VMM domain information, OOB (out-of-band) management IP's of nodes inthe fabric, etc.

Unified Collector 314 can also poll other information from Leafs 104 andSpines 102, such as: Ci Models 274 for VLANs, BDs, security policies,Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) connectivity information of Leafs104 and/or Spines 102, endpoint information from EPM/COOP, fabric cardinformation from Spines 102, routing information base (RIB) tables,forwarding information base (FIB) tables from Leafs 104 and/or Spines102, security group hardware tables (e.g., TCAM tables) from switches,etc.

Assurance Appliance 300 can run one or more instances of UnifiedCollector 314. For example, Assurance Appliance 300 can run one, two,three, or more instances of Unified Collector 314. The task of datacollecting for each node in the topology (e.g., Fabric 120 includingSpines 102, Leafs 104, Controllers 116, etc.) can be sharded or loadbalanced, to a unique instance of Unified Collector 314. Data collectionacross the nodes can thus be performed in parallel by one or moreinstances of Unified Collector 314. Within a given node, commands anddata collection can be executed serially. Assurance Appliance 300 cancontrol the number of threads used by each instance of Unified Collector314 to poll data from Fabric 120.

Data collected by Unified Collector 314 can be compressed and sent todownstream services. In some examples, Unified Collector 314 can collectdata in an online fashion or real-time fashion, and send the datadownstream, as it is collected, for further analysis. In some examples,Unified Collector 314 can collect data in an offline fashion, andcompile the data for later analysis or transmission.

Assurance Appliance 300 can contact Controllers 116, Spines 102, Leafs104, and other nodes to collect various types of data. In somescenarios, Assurance Appliance 300 may experience a failure (e.g.,connectivity problem, hardware or software error, etc.) that prevents itfrom being able to collect data for a period of time. AssuranceAppliance 300 can handle such failures seamlessly, and generate eventsbased on such failures.

Switch Logical Policy Generator 316 can receive L_Model 270A and/orLR_Model 270B from Unified Collector 314 and calculate Li_Model 272 foreach network device i (e.g., switch i) in Fabric 120. For example,Switch Logical Policy Generator 316 can receive L_Model 270A and/orLR_Model 270B and generate Li_Model 272 by projecting a logical modelfor each individual node i (e.g., Spines 102 and/or Leafs 104) in Fabric120. Switch Logical Policy Generator 316 can generate Li_Model 272 foreach switch in Fabric 120, thus creating a switch logical model based onL_Model 270A for each switch.

Switch Logical Configuration Generator 316 can also perform changeanalysis and generate lint events or records for problems discovered inL_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270B. The lint events or records can beused to generate alerts for a user or network operator.

Policy Operator 318 can receive Ci_Model 274 and Hi_Model 276 for eachswitch from Unified Collector 314, and Li_Model 272 for each switch fromSwitch Logical Policy Generator 316, and perform assurance checks andanalysis (e.g., security adherence checks, TCAM utilization analysis,etc.) based on Ci_Model 274, Hi_Model 276, and Li_Model 272. PolicyOperator 318 can perform assurance checks on a switch-by-switch basis bycomparing one or more of the models.

Returning to Unified Collector 314, Unified Collector 314 can also sendL_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270B to Routing Policy Parser 320, andCi_Model 274 and Hi_Model 276 to Routing Parser 326.

Routing Policy Parser 320 can receive L_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270Band parse the model(s) for information that may be relevant todownstream operators, such as Endpoint Checker 322 and Tenant RoutingChecker 324. Similarly, Routing Parser 326 can receive Ci_Model 274 andHi_Model 276 and parse each model for information for downstreamoperators, Endpoint Checker 322 and Tenant Routing Checker 324.

After Ci_Model 274, Hi_Model 276, L_Model 270A and/or LR_Model 270B areparsed, Routing Policy Parser 320 and/or Routing Parser 326 can sendcleaned-up protocol buffers (Proto Buffs) to the downstream operators,Endpoint Checker 322 and Tenant Routing Checker 324. Endpoint Checker322 can then generate events related to Endpoint violations, such asduplicate IPs, APIPA, etc., and Tenant Routing Checker 324 can generateevents related to the deployment of BDs, VRFs, subnets, routing tableprefixes, etc.

FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of an example system for staticpolicy analysis in a network (e.g., Network Environment 100). StaticPolicy Analyzer 360 can perform assurance checks to detect configurationviolations, logical lint events, contradictory or conflicting policies,unused contracts, incomplete configurations, etc. Static Policy Analyzer360 can check the specification of the user's intent or intents inL_Model 270A to determine if any configurations in Controllers 116 areinconsistent with the specification of the user's intent or intents.

Static Policy Analyzer 360 can include one or more of the Operators 310executed or hosted in Assurance Appliance 300. However, in otherconfigurations, Static Policy Analyzer 360 can run one or more operatorsor engines that are separate from Operators 310 and/or AssuranceAppliance 300. For example, Static Policy Analyzer 360 can be a VM, acluster of VMs, or a collection of endpoints in a service functionchain.

Static Policy Analyzer 360 can receive as input L_Model 270A fromLogical Model Collection Process 366 and Rules 368 defined for eachfeature (e.g., object) in L_Model 270A. Rules 368 can be based onobjects, relationships, definitions, configurations, and any otherfeatures in MIM 200. Rules 368 can specify conditions, relationships,parameters, and/or any other information for identifying configurationviolations or issues.

Moreover, Rules 368 can include information for identifying syntacticviolations or issues. For example, Rules 368 can include one or morerules for performing syntactic checks. Syntactic checks can verify thatthe configuration of L_Model 270A is complete, and can help identifyconfigurations or rules that are not being used. Syntactic checks canalso verify that the configurations in the hierarchical MIM 200 arecomplete (have been defined) and identify any configurations that aredefined but not used. To illustrate, Rules 368 can specify that everytenant in L_Model 270A should have a context configured; every contractin L_Model 270A should specify a provider EPG and a consumer EPG; everycontract in L_Model 270A should specify a subject, filter, and/or port;etc.

Rules 368 can also include rules for performing semantic checks andidentifying semantic violations or issues. Semantic checks can checkconflicting rules or configurations. For example, Rule1 and Rule2 canhave aliasing issues, Rule1 can be more specific than Rule2 and therebycreate conflicts/issues, etc. Rules 368 can define conditions which mayresult in aliased rules, conflicting rules, etc. To illustrate, Rules368 can specify that an allow policy for a specific communicationbetween two objects can conflict with a deny policy for the samecommunication between two objects if the allow policy has a higherpriority than the deny policy, or a rule for an object renders anotherrule unnecessary.

Static Policy Analyzer 360 can apply Rules 368 to L_Model 270A to checkconfigurations in L_Model 270A and output Configuration Violation Events370 (e.g., alerts, logs, notifications, etc.) based on any issuesdetected. Configuration Violation Events 370 can include semantic orsemantic problems, such as incomplete configurations, conflictingconfigurations, aliased rules, unused configurations, errors, policyviolations, misconfigured objects, incomplete configurations, incorrectcontract scopes, improper object relationships, etc.

In some cases, Static Policy Analyzer 360 can iteratively traverse eachnode in a tree generated based on L_Model 270A and/or MIM 200, and applyRules 368 at each node in the tree to determine if any nodes yield aviolation (e.g., incomplete configuration, improper configuration,unused configuration, etc.). Static Policy Analyzer 360 can outputConfiguration Violation Events 370 when it detects any violations.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart for an example network assurance method.The methods illustrated herein are provided by way of example, as thereare a variety of ways to carry out the various methods disclosed.Additionally, while the example methods are illustrated with aparticular order of blocks, operations, or steps, those of ordinaryskill in the art will appreciate that the blocks, operations, or stepscan be executed in any order and can include fewer or more blocks,operations, or steps than illustrated.

Each block, operation, or step shown in FIG. 4 represents one or moresteps, processes, methods, or routines in the methods. For the sake ofclarity and explanation purposes, the FIG. 4 is described with referenceto Assurance Appliance 300, Models 270A-B, 272, 274, 276, and NetworkEnvironment 100, as shown in FIGS. 1A-B, 2D, and 3A.

At step 400, Assurance Appliance 300 can collect data and obtain modelsassociated with Network Environment 100. The models can include Models270A-B, 272, 274, 276. The data can include fabric data (e.g., topology,switch, interface policies, application policies, EPGs, etc.), networkconfigurations (e.g., BDs, VRFs, L2 Outs, L3 Outs, protocolconfigurations, etc.), security configurations (e.g., contracts,filters, etc.), service chaining configurations, routing configurations,and so forth. Other information collected or obtained can include, forexample, network data (e.g., RIB/FIB, VLAN, MAC, ISIS, DB, BGP, OSPF,ARP, VPC, LLDP, MTU, QoS, etc.), rules and tables (e.g., TCAM rules,ECMP tables, etc.), endpoint dynamics (e.g., EPM, COOP EP DB, etc.),statistics (e.g., TCAM rule hits, interface counters, bandwidth, etc.).

At step 402, Assurance Appliance 300 can analyze and model the receiveddata and models. For example, Assurance Appliance 300 can perform formalmodeling and analysis, which can involve determining equivalency betweenmodels, including configurations, policies, etc.

At step 404, Assurance Appliance 300 can generate one or more smartevents. Assurance Appliance 300 can generate smart events using deepobject hierarchy for detailed analysis, such as Tenants, switches, VRFs,rules, filters, routes, prefixes, ports, contracts, subjects, etc.

At step 406, Assurance Appliance 300 can visualize the smart events,analysis, and/or models. Assurance Appliance 300 can display problemsand alerts for analysis and debugging, in a user-friendly GUI.

Validation of Infrastructure Routing

Encapsulation (e.g., V×LAN encapsulation) and decapsulation is used tokeep tenant data flows separate in a multi-tenant fabric. Tenant packetsare encapsulated with V×LAN headers, which consists of the infra VRFV×ID or overlay-1.

A source leaf node will receive a tenant data packet from a sourcetenant endpoint (outside the fabric), encapsulate the tenant datapacket, determine which route/path to send the tenant data packet, andsend the tenant data packet along a selected path. If there are multiplepaths available to reach the destination, the leaf node may use variousmethods to select a path. For example, to transmit a data packet to adestination, a source leaf node may have n paths to reach thedestination, which may represent the n spine nodes that can reach thedestination leaf that the source leaf node may transmit the data packetto.

In order to determine which of the n spine nodes to transmit the datapacket to, the source leaf node may take a hash of a flow value andperform a modulo n operation. The flow value may be, for example a valueincluding the source IP address, the source port number, a destinationIP address, and a destination port number. In other implementations, theflow value may include other information. The result of the modulooperation may be used to select a spine node to transmit the data packetto. For example, each spine node may be assigned a possible result ofthe modulo operation and the spine node that matches the actual resultof the modulo operation may be the spine node or path that the sourceleaf node selects to transmit the data packet to.

A destination leaf node will receive the encapsulated tenant datapacket, decapsulate the data packet, and provide the decapsulated datapacket to a destination endpoint (outside the fabric). To the fabricclients (e.g., the source endpoint and the destination endpoint), theencapsulation and decapsulation processes will be transparent, withoutthe appearance that anything happened.

All the data flowing within the fabric is flowing via a special VRF, theinfra/overlay VRF. The infra VRF is a fabric maintained and managed VRF(and used to encapsulate/decapsulate tenant data packets). In the infraVRF, every node has one or more IP address. There are various IPaddresses for the nodes in the infra VRF. For example, a leaf's IPaddress in the infra VRF is called a physical tunnel endpoint (PTEP)address. Spines have various IP addresses. The IP address of a spinenode may be a TEP address, spine proxy IP addresses for v4 IP, v6 IP, orMAC proxy addresses. Infra VRFs also have fabric loopback TEP (FTEP)address, or VXLAN tunnel endpoint (VTEP) address, infra network subnet(pervasive) IP, data tunnel endpoint (DTEP) addresses used in multipod,BGP loopbacks also used in multipod, etc. We refer to all the differenttypes of IP addresses generically as IP addresses that exist in the VRF.

The IS-IS routing protocol runs in the infra VRF and exchanges andupdates all of the IP addresses in the infra VRF for the nodes. TheIS-IS routing protocol updates all the routes so that each node knowshow to access each other node. As links and/or nodes come on or drop outof the fabric, the IS-IS routing protocol informs the other nodes in thefabric of the change and updates the routing information.

Each node stores the routing and IP information in a Longest PrefixMatch (LPM) routing table (also known as FIB/RIB tables) for theinfra-VRF that the IS-IS routing protocol keeps up to date. For example,if a link goes down, the IS-IS routing protocol is responsible forupdating the LPM tables for the infra-VRF for all nodes in the fabricand removing the path from the LPM tables.

However, for various reasons, the routing tables (e.g., LPM tables) inthe nodes may become out of date or include faulty information. In somecases, the faults may be a result of a network controller not correctlyupdating the routing configuration on the nodes, a network administratorincorrectly configuring or updating individual nodes instead ofprogramming the network controller, an error in the operation of theIS-IS routing protocol, a new node being installed in the fabric, a nodebeing removed from the fabric, or other reason.

It is difficult to determine whether the routing tables in the nodes areup to date or valid. This may cause malfunctions in the fabric such asloops in the fabric, black hole nodes, and/or isolated nodes. If thereis a loop in the network, some traffic transmitted in the fabric willtravel in a looped path within the nodes of the fabric. Eventually, thedata packets will be dropped based on various counters implemented byvarious networking protocols. An isolated leaf node occurs when none ofthe spine nodes in the fabric have a route to a particular destinationleaf node. Accordingly, all data packets sent to the destination leafnode will be dropped.

A “black hole” forms when at least one of the spine nodes that issupposed to have a path to a particular destination leaf node (e.g., therouting table for a source leaf node includes a path to a destinationleaf node that includes that spine node), does not actually have a pathto that destination leaf node. However, other spine nodes may have apath to that destination leaf node. Accordingly, some data packets sentto the destination leaf node may be dropped while other data packets maynot be. In particular, data packets sent via the spine node that doesnot have the path to the destination leaf node will be dropped whileother data packets sent to the other spine nodes will make it to thedestination leaf node.

According to various aspects of the subject technology, the networkassurance appliance may be configured to check for at least thesereasons that a network fabric is not functioning properly. The networkassurance appliance may retrieve routing information from routing tablesfor the nodes in the fabric and validate each prefix, node, or entry inthe routing tables.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for performing an infrastructure routingvalidation, in accordance with various aspects of the subjecttechnology. At operation 502, the network assurance appliance mayretrieve routing table information from nodes in a network fabric. Forexample, the network assurance appliance may poll the nodes (e.g., allleaf nodes or leaf and spine nodes) to retrieve information in routingtables stored by the nodes. These routing tables may be implemented as,for example, LPM tables for leaf nodes. However, other types of routingtables are also contemplated.

The routing table information may include route or path informationneeded to transmit data packets from a source node to a destination nodein the fabric. For example, an LPM table for leaf node 1 may include anumber of table entries that include path or route information needed totransmit data packets to other destination leaf nodes in the fabric.Each entry may include, for example, a prefix or other identifier for anintended destination and one or more next hops indicating the path thatmay be used to transmit data packets to the intended destination. Theprefix may be a prefix of an IP address for the intended destination(e.g., a PTEP address). Accordingly, a LPM table for leaf node 1 mayinclude an entry where leaf node 3 is the destination and the entry mayinclude a prefix identifying leaf node 3 and a spine IP address thatrepresents a next hop to the spine node that may be used to transmitdata packets to leaf node 3.

The routing table information retrieved from the nodes may be aggregatedinto a unified table and, at operation 504, the network assuranceappliance may construct one or more graph representations of the routingtable information. For example, for each prefix IP address for adestination node in the unified table, the network assurance appliancemay construct a graph representation where the destination node isrepresented as a sink vertex in the graph representation. Thedestination node is represented by a vertex with an outdegree of zero orwhere all edges connected to the vertex are incoming edges. A separategraph may be constructed for each prefix/destination in the unifiedtable.

According to some aspects, some prefixes in the LPM table are“pervasive.” In other words, these prefixes may be considered to beowned by multiple or all leave nodes. The network assurance appliancemay generate a graph for each of these prefixes as well. However, forthese graphs, the all leaf nodes that the pervasive prefix belongs tomay act as a sink vertex.

At operation 506, the network assurance appliance may determine whethereach source leaf node in the network fabric can reach the sink vertex ordestination node. This operation may occur for each graph representationgenerated for each destination node. Furthermore, for each graphrepresentation generated for each destination node, the networkassurance appliance may determine whether there is a misconfiguration ofthe network fabric based on whether each source leaf node in the fabriccan reach the sink vertex or destination node at operation 508.

For example, if no source leaf nodes in the fabric can reach the sinkvertex in the graph or the destination node, that destination node (orthe prefix for that destination node) may be considered isolated whereall data packets will not reach the intended destination. If one or moresource leaf nodes in the fabric cannot reach the sink vertex in thegraph or the destination node, that destination node (or the prefix forthat destination node) may be considered a black hole where some datapackets may not reach the intended destination.

According to some aspects of the subject technology, the networkassurance appliance may also check to determine whether there are loopsin the network fabric. For example, once the graph representations ofthe routing table information are generated for the one or moredestination nodes or prefixes for destination nodes in the routingfabric at operation 504, the network assurance appliance may check eachgraph for a loop. A loop occurs when a data packet is continually routedthrough the same nodes over and over. The data packets continue to berouted within the network in an endless circle. Depending on the routingprotocol used, these data packets may eventually be dropped after athreshold number of hops or time. A loop can have serious detrimentalimpacts on network performance.

If a blackhole condition, isolation condition, or loop condition isdetected, the network assurance appliance may generate an event, notifya network administrator of the event, log the event, and/or attempt toresolve the issue. As a result, the network assurance appliance mayvalidate the fabric and identify various errors or misconfigurationconditions in a network fabric without even needing to test the fabricor before any data packets even flow through the fabric.

Multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (MP-BGP) Route Reflection Checks

Multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (MP-BGP) is a routing protocolused in the fabric to ensure internal tenant endpoints can reachexternal destinations (e.g., outside of the network fabric to theinternet). An L3OUT is a construct that enables the network to reach theoutside and allows external traffic to come into the fabric.

An external router may notify a leaf node in the network fabric (e.g., aborder leaf node) that the external router is connected to the routes toexternal destinations that the external router has information about inthe routing tables of the external router. The leaf node will take theexternal routes and spread it throughout the network fabric to othernodes in the fabric. However, not all leaf nodes need to storeinformation about all of the external routes/entries. The routing tablememory (e.g., LPM tables) for the leaf nodes are a precious resource.The MP-BGP protocol runs in the infra-VRF and determines how to spreadthe external routes for all tenants across the fabric.

A subset of the spine nodes in the fabric may be route reflectors (RR).Whenever a border leaf learns about a new external route, the borderleaf adds the route to its LPM table and notifies the RR spine nodes.The RR spine nodes determine which leaf nodes need to know of theexternal routes and spread the information to the selected leaf nodesand the appropriate VRFs in the leaf. The VRFs for each leaf node arefrom the logical model. In other words, the RR discovers the newexternal routes, determines the endpoints and/or VRFs that havecontracts with that L3OUT, determines the leaf nodes and VRFs that thoseendpoints belong to, and notifies the appropriate VRFs on those leafnodes of the new external routes.

However, it is difficult to determine whether the MP-BGP protocol and/orthe RR spine nodes have behaved properly and have properly configuredthe network fabric. There are various reasons for misconfigurations. Forexample, a contract in the logical model may not have been properlyrendered at the concrete or hardware levels.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart for performing Multiprotocol BorderGateway Protocol (MP-BGP) routing validation, in accordance with variousaspects of the subject technology. At operation 602, the networkassurance appliance may retrieve implemented MP-BGP configuration datafrom leaf nodes and route reflector nodes.

The MP-BGP configuration data implemented on the nodes in the fabric maybe based on logical model information including contracts andconfiguration details provided by a network administrator. The logicalmodel may be rendered by the network controller into a concrete modelfor each node in the fabric and implemented on the nodes.

MP-BGP configuration data implemented on a route reflector spine nodeincludes information that maps out which leaf nodes the route reflectorwill disseminate new external routes that are learned with an L3OUTprefix. For example, a route reflector may store MP-BGP configurationdata that dictates which leaf nodes and VRFs for those leaf nodes todisseminate newly learned routes to new destinations or prefixes forL3OUT. If the route reflector node learns prefix 400.*.* for L3OUT, theroute reflector may determine, based on the MP-BGP configuration datastored in the route reflector, that the routing information for prefix400.*.* should be provided to leaf node 1 and leaf node 5 and particularVRFs on those leaf nodes. For example, the routing information forprefix 400.*.* may be provided to VRF 1 and VRF 5 on leaf node 1 and VRF10 on leaf node 5.

MP-BGP configuration data implemented on a leaf node includesinformation that identifies the route reflector spine nodes in thefabric and maps VRFs to route targets or route distinguishers that areused to route traffic to destinations or prefixes associated with theL3OUT. A route distinguisher (RD) may distinguish one set of routes (oneVRF) from another. It may be implemented as a unique number prepended toeach route within a VRF to identify it as belonging to that particularVRF or customer. An RD is carried along with a route via MP-BGP whenexchanging routes with other nodes. Whereas route distinguishers areused to maintain uniqueness among identical routes in different VRFs,route targets can be used to share routes among them. Route targets maybe applied to a VRF to control the import and export of routes among itand other VRFs.

At operation 604, the network assurance appliance may also retrievereference MP-BGP configuration data from network controller. The MP-BGPconfiguration data from the network controller may be in the form of alogical model for particular nodes in the network fabric. The MP-BGPconfiguration data may include information about which spine nodes areto perform route reflector operations and which tenants, endpointgroups, endpoints, or VRFs are configured to communicate with entitiesexternal to the network via the L3OUT. The MP-BGP configuration datafrom the network controller may be thought of as the reference MP-BGPconfiguration data because this data is supposed to be rendered into thevarious fabric nodes for implementation. According to some aspects, thereference MP-BGP configuration data may be generated using inputs fromthe logical model from the network controller. The reference MP-BGPconfiguration data may be generated by the network controller or thenetwork assurance appliance.

The implemented MP-BGP configuration data may be compared to thereference MP-BGP configuration data at operation 606 and, at operation608, the network assurance appliance may determine whether there is amisconfiguration of the implemented MP-BGP configuration data based onthe comparison. Accordingly, the MP-BGP configuration data implementedon the various nodes in the fabric may be validated against thereference MP-BGP configuration data. The reference MP-BGP configurationdata may be compared with the MP-BGP configuration data implemented oneach leaf node and/or compared with MP-BGP configuration dataimplemented on each route reflector spine node. For example, the MP-BGPconfiguration data for each of the leaf nodes may be compared to thereference MP-BGP configuration for a corresponding leaf node to ensurethat each leaf node is aware of the identify of each route reflectorspine nodes in the network fabric.

If there is a conflict or mismatch based on the comparison, the networkassurance appliance may generate an event, notify a networkadministrator of the event, log the event, and/or attempt to resolve theissue. As a result, the network assurance appliance may validate thefabric and identify various errors or misconfiguration conditions in anetwork fabric without even needing to test the fabric or before anydata packets even flow through the fabric.

At operation 610, the network assurance appliance may also subsequently,in parallel, or in a separate process, compare the implemented MP-BGPconfiguration data from the different nodes and determine whether thereis a misconfiguration of the implemented MP-BGP configuration data basedon the comparison at operation 612. The MP-BGP configuration data may becompared between leaf nodes, between a leaf node and a route reflectorspine node, and/or between route reflector spine nodes.

If there is a conflict or mismatch based on the comparison, the networkassurance appliance may generate an event, notify a networkadministrator of the event, log the event, and/or attempt to resolve theissue. As a result, the network assurance appliance may validate thefabric and identify various errors or misconfiguration conditions in anetwork fabric without even needing to test the fabric or before anydata packets even flow through the fabric.

According to various aspects of the subject technology, the networkassurance appliance may perform various checks and generate variousevents based on the performed checks. For example, if a mismatch,inconsistency, or error is found based on a performed check, the networkassurance appliance may generate an event and store the event in anevent log. If, based on a check, certain network configurations areoperating correctly or no error is found, the network assuranceappliance may also generate an event indicating that no error is foundwith respect to the performed check and store the event in an event log.

The generated events may be provided to a network administrator toinform the network administrator about the status of the network fabricand/or suggest potential actions to take. For example, the events may beused to generate a notification, a report, a user interface, or othermedium to inform the network administrator.

FIGS. 7A-7D illustrate example user interfaces, in accordance withvarious aspects of the subject technology. The network assuranceappliance may provide various user interfaces or enable various userinterfaces for network administrators to view the status of the networkfabric and, in particular, the endpoint configuration in the networkfabric.

For example, FIG. 7A illustrates an example interface where a networkadministrator may select a network fabric for viewing using interfaceelement and a particular time period at using interface element 704. Inresponse to the selections, the network assurance appliance may provideinformation relating to endpoint and fabric configuration across theselected network fabric at a particular time period. For example, thenetwork assurance appliance may perform various checks periodically,generate events based on the checks, and store the events in event logs.This information may be summarized and categorized by, for example,severity of the event(s), health of routing/forwarding resources (e.g.,ports, endpoint groups, bridge domains, subnets, external routes, etc.),or event types as shown in FIG. 7A. Furthermore, the information may begrouped based on the time period in which they can be attributed to sothat the network administrator can identify trends and changes in thenetwork fabric over time.

According to various aspects of the subject technology, the networkassurance appliance may compute a score for routing/forwarding resourcesor any other entity in the network fabric based on a number of events,the type of events generated, the severity of events generated, and/ortrends or patterns in the events over time.

For example, a health score may be calculated for routing resources inthe network based on a number of events associated with the routingresource, the type of events associated with the routing resource, theseverity of those events, and/or event trends over time. A routingresource may be categorized as healthy or unhealthy based on the healthscore. For example, if the health score of a routing resource is above athreshold, it may be considered healthy. If the routing resource'shealth score is below the threshold, it may be considered unhealthy. Thethreshold may be based on a set value, an average value, or may be acombination of thresholds.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example interface that provides a visualizationleaf node information. For example, table 706 illustrates therelationship between a particular leaf node in the network fabric and anumber of events associated with the leaf node, as well as the severitytype of the events. The events are grouped based on the severity of theevents. For example, leaf 2 in the “candid2” fabric is associated with328 critical events, 1 major events, 1 minor events, 0 warnings, and 1informational events. In other embodiments, other types of categoriesbased on event severity may be used. Furthermore, in other embodiments,the number of events based on severity may be provided for an endpointgroup, a tenant, an app profile, a VRF, a bridge domain, a tenant, orany other entity in the network fabric.

Table 708 illustrates the relationship between a particular leaf node inthe network fabric and a routes associated with the leaf node, as wellas the route type (e.g., routes directed to destinations in an internalsubnet or to external destinations). FIG. 7C illustrates an exampleinterface that illustrates the relationship between a particular leafnode in the network fabric, different types of events or issuesassociated with the leaf node, and the number of each of the types ofevents generated for that leaf node.

FIG. 7D illustrates an example interface that enables a networkadministrator to view events and select a particular event to view moreinformation on. For example, the interface in FIG. 7D may show allevents during a particular time period or events for a particular entity(e.g., leaf nodes, ports, endpoint groups, bridge domains, subnets,external routes, etc.) during the time period. For example, a networkadministrator may select a particular entity shown in FIGS. 7A-7C toview all events for a time period associated with that entity.

Each row in FIG. 7D may correspond with an event in the event log.Column 710 may indicate the severity of each event, column 712 mayindicate the subcategory or event type for each event, column 714 mayindicate the event name for each event, and 716 may provide an eventdescription for each event. The network administrator may select a rowfor an event to view more information about the event.

The disclosure now turns to FIGS. 8 and 9, which illustrate examplenetwork devices and computing devices, such as switches, routers, loadbalancers, client devices, and so forth.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example network device 800 suitable for performingswitching, routing, load balancing, and other networking operations.Network device 800 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 804,interfaces 802, and a bus 810 (e.g., a PCI bus). When acting under thecontrol of appropriate software or firmware, the CPU 804 is responsiblefor executing packet management, error detection, and/or routingfunctions. The CPU 804 preferably accomplishes all these functions underthe control of software including an operating system and anyappropriate applications software. CPU 804 may include one or moreprocessors 809, such as a processor from the INTEL X86 family ofmicroprocessors. In some cases, processor 808 can be specially designedhardware for controlling the operations of network device 800. In somecases, a memory 806 (e.g., non-volatile RAM, ROM, etc.) also forms partof CPU 804. However, there are many different ways in which memory couldbe coupled to the system.

The interfaces 802 are typically provided as modular interface cards(sometimes referred to as “line cards”). Generally, they control thesending and receiving of data packets over the network and sometimessupport other peripherals used with the network device 800. Among theinterfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, andthe like. In addition, various very high-speed interfaces may beprovided such as fast token ring interfaces, wireless interfaces,Ethernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, ATM interfaces, HSSIinterfaces, POS interfaces, FDDI interfaces, WIFI interfaces, 3G/4G/5Gcellular interfaces, CAN BUS, LoRA, and the like. Generally, theseinterfaces may include ports appropriate for communication with theappropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independentprocessor and, in some instances, volatile RAM. The independentprocessors may control such communications intensive tasks as packetswitching, media control, signal processing, crypto processing, andmanagement. By providing separate processors for the communicationsintensive tasks, these interfaces allow the master microprocessor 604 toefficiently perform routing computations, network diagnostics, securityfunctions, etc.

Although the system shown in FIG. 8 is one specific network device ofthe present invention, it is by no means the only network devicearchitecture on which the present invention can be implemented. Forexample, an architecture having a single processor that handlescommunications as well as routing computations, etc., is often used.Further, other types of interfaces and media could also be used with thenetwork device 800.

Regardless of the network device's configuration, it may employ one ormore memories or memory modules (including memory 806) configured tostore program instructions for the general-purpose network operationsand mechanisms for roaming, route optimization, and routing functionsdescribed herein. The program instructions may control the operation ofan operating system and/or one or more applications, for example. Thememory or memories may also be configured to store tables such asmobility binding, registration, and association tables, etc. Memory 806could also hold various software containers and virtualized executionenvironments and data.

The network device 800 can also include an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), which can be configured to perform routingand/or switching operations. The ASIC can communicate with othercomponents in the network device 800 via the bus 810, to exchange dataand signals and coordinate various types of operations by the networkdevice 800, such as routing, switching, and/or data storage operations,for example.

FIG. 9 illustrates a computing system architecture 900 wherein thecomponents of the system are in electrical communication with each otherusing a connection 905, such as a bus. Exemplary system 900 includes aprocessing unit (CPU or processor) 910 and a system connection 905 thatcouples various system components including the system memory 915, suchas read only memory (ROM) 920 and random access memory (RAM) 925, to theprocessor 910. The system 900 can include a cache of high-speed memoryconnected directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part ofthe processor 910. The system 900 can copy data from the memory 915and/or the storage device 930 to the cache 912 for quick access by theprocessor 910. In this way, the cache can provide a performance boostthat avoids processor 910 delays while waiting for data. These and othermodules can control or be configured to control the processor 910 toperform various actions. Other system memory 915 may be available foruse as well. The memory 915 can include multiple different types ofmemory with different performance characteristics. The processor 910 caninclude any general purpose processor and a hardware or softwareservice, such as service 1 932, service 2 934, and service 3 936 storedin storage device 930, configured to control the processor 910 as wellas a special-purpose processor where software instructions areincorporated into the actual processor design. The processor 910 may bea completely self-contained computing system, containing multiple coresor processors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-coreprocessor may be symmetric or asymmetric.

To enable user interaction with the computing device 900, an inputdevice 945 can represent any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. An outputdevice 935 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanismsknown to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodalsystems can enable a user to provide multiple types of input tocommunicate with the computing device 900. The communications interface940 can generally govern and manage the user input and system output.There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardwarearrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily besubstituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they aredeveloped.

Storage device 930 is a non-volatile memory and can be a hard disk orother types of computer readable media which can store data that areaccessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges,random access memories (RAMs) 925, read only memory (ROM) 920, andhybrids thereof.

The storage device 930 can include services 932, 934, 936 forcontrolling the processor 910. Other hardware or software modules arecontemplated. The storage device 930 can be connected to the systemconnection 905. In one aspect, a hardware module that performs aparticular function can include the software component stored in acomputer-readable medium in connection with the necessary hardwarecomponents, such as the processor 910, connection 905, output device935, and so forth, to carry out the function.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances the present technology maybe presented as including individual functional blocks includingfunctional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps orroutines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardwareand software.

In some embodiments the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, andmemories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit streamand the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readablestorage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implementedusing computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwiseavailable from computer readable media. Such instructions can comprise,for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purposeprocessing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network.The computer executable instructions may be, for example, binaries,intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, orsource code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used tostore instructions, information used, and/or information created duringmethods according to described examples include magnetic or opticaldisks, flash memory, USB devices provided with non-volatile memory,networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprisehardware, firmware, and/or software, and can take any of a variety ofform factors. Typical examples of such form factors include laptops,smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personal digitalassistants, rack mount devices, standalone devices, and so on.Functionality described herein also can be embodied in peripherals oradd-in cards. Such functionality can also be implemented on a circuitboard among different chips or different processes executing in a singledevice, by way of further example.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computingresources for executing them, and other structures for supporting suchcomputing resources are means for providing the functions described inthese disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explainaspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of theclaims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements insuch examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use theseexamples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further andalthough some subject matter may have been described in languagespecific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it isto be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claimsis not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. Forexample, such functionality can be distributed differently or performedin components other than those identified herein. Rather, the describedfeatures and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systemsand methods within the scope of the appended claims.

Claim language reciting “at least one of” refers to at least one of aset and indicates that one member of the set or multiple members of theset satisfy the claim. For example, claim language reciting “at leastone of A and B” means A, B, or A and B.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:retrieving routing table information from a plurality of nodes in anetwork fabric, wherein the routing table information includes pathinformation from at least one source node to at least one destinationnode; constructing a graph representation of the routing tableinformation with the at least one destination node as a sink vertex forthe graph representation; determining, for each leaf node in the networkfabric, whether the leaf node can reach the sink vertex based on thegraph representation; and determining that there is a misconfigurationof the network fabric based on whether each leaf node in the networkfabric can reach the sink vertex.
 2. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising generating an event specifying themisconfiguration.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, furthercomprising providing, based on the event, a user interface comprisingnetwork status information.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim3, further comprising calculating, based on the event, a health scorefor one or more endpoints, wherein the network status informationcomprises the health score for the one or more endpoints.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the event is associatedwith a severity level and an event type.
 6. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the network fabric comprises asoftware-defined network (SDN).
 7. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining that a loop exists in the graphrepresentation of the routing table information; and generating a nodeloop event based on the loop.
 8. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining that no leaf node in thenetwork fabric can reach the sink vertex based on the graphrepresentation; and generating a node isolation event.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determiningthat at least one leaf node in the network fabric cannot reach the sinkvertex based on the graph representation; and generating a node blackhole event.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising: querying each node the plurality of nodes in the networkfabric for information contained in a Longest Prefix Match (LPM) routingtable; and wherein the routing table information comprises theinformation contained in the LPM routing table for each node in theplurality of nodes.
 11. A system comprising: one or more processors; andat least one computer-readable storage medium having stored thereininstructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe system to: retrieve routing table information from nodes in anetwork fabric, wherein the routing table information includes pathinformation from at least one source node to a destination node;determine, for each source node in the at least one source node, whetherthe source node can reach the destination node based on the routingtable information; determine that there is a misconfiguration of thenetwork fabric based on whether each leaf node in the at least onesource node can reach the destination node; and generate an eventspecifying the misconfiguration.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein theinstructions further cause the system to provide, based on the event, auser interface comprising network status information.
 13. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system to generate,based on the event, a notification comprising network status informationfor a network administrator.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein theinstructions further cause the system to calculate, based on the event,a health score for one or more endpoints, wherein the network statusinformation comprises the health score for the one or more endpoints.15. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause thesystem to: construct a graph representation of the routing tableinformation with the destination node as a sink vertex for the graphrepresentation; determine that a loop exists in the graph representationof the routing table information; and generate a node loop event basedon the loop.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the system to: determine that no leaf node in the at leastone source node can reach the destination node based on the routingtable information; and generate a node isolation event.
 17. The systemof claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:determine that the at least one source node cannot reach the destinationnode based on the routing table information; and generate a node blackhole event.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising instructions stored therein instructions which, when executedby one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to performoperations including: querying each node of a plurality of nodes in anetwork fabric for routing table information, wherein the routing tableinformation includes path information from at least one source node to adestination node; determining whether each source node in the at leastone source node can reach the destination node based on the routingtable information; determining that there is a misconfiguration of thenetwork fabric based on whether each source node in the at least onesource node can reach the destination node based on the routing tableinformation; and providing a user interface based on themisconfiguration.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the one ormore processors to perform operations including: determining that the atleast one source node cannot reach the destination node based on therouting table information; and wherein the misconfiguration is a blackhole event.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the one or moreprocessors to perform operations including: constructing a graphrepresentation of the routing table information with the destinationnode as a sink vertex for the graph representation; determining that aloop exists in the graph representation of the routing tableinformation; and wherein the misconfiguration is a node loop event.